Electoral and non-electoral participation in Latin America

There are two routes for interaction between citizens and politicians. The best known is through votes, which is called the "long route" of accountability  (World Bank, 2004) because citizens delegate on politicians the capacity to control and encourage suppliers to deliver better goods and services. The second route is through a direct interaction between the population and the suppliers of goods and services. This is called the "short route" of accountability. Both are complementary and necessary for the correct provision of goods and services, although the latter has the advantage of enabling a more direct and fluid interaction between citizens and the suppliers.

How high are the levels of citizen participation in Latin America? From the electoral participation point of view ("long route"), the average rate in the region is quite high. According to a survey carried out by Latinobarómetro, 75 percent of the population over 18 years old in Latin America responded positively to the question "Did you vote in the last presidential election"? At the same time, electoral participation in most of the sub-regions of Latin America is high compared with that of other regions worldwide (both in countries with mandatory vote and in those where voting is voluntary), and in contrast with all the other regions in the world, the rate has increased in past years. 

What happens with other forms of citizen participation? According to the data, non-electoral participation is not high. The World Values Survey shows that in comparison with more developed regions, the citizens of Latin America report a lower level of average participation through the signature of petitions, authorized demonstrations, strikes, and boycotts. Why don´t citizens participate more through these different ways? What do the data for Colombia say?  

According to the 2014 CAF Survey, the main reason that Colombians have to not complained about the provision of public services is that they do not think complaining helps. In second place, they say they have no time, and in third place, they do not know where to make their complaint. 

Reasons that citizens hold for not complaining for problems with the provision of public services in cities of Latin America 

a/ In the graph, cities are ranked according to the category "I do not think that complains help". 

Source: Own creation with data from the 2014 CAF Survey  

According to the Colombian Political Culture Survey (ECP 2011, for its acronym in Spanish), very few Colombians know the citizen participation mechanisms that are available in their country other than voting. Most of these mechanisms were designed precisely to strengthen the short route of accountability. 

The 2015 Economy and Development Report (RED, for its acronym in Spanish), developed by CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, suggests available tools that have a great potential to promote citizen participation. The report highlights the need to generate more and quality information, which must be simple, timely, and reliable. The information in itself is insufficient; it is also important to generate spaces to present the complaints, and for information to flow from citizens to suppliers. Thus, the new information and communications technologies reduce the coordination costs between citizens for a collective action, as well as the costs of interacting with the bureaucracy. They are also a fast and long-reaching way to disseminate information regarding the performance of the State.